Children and Teens as Clients

The Mauriello Group is happy to work with your child or teenager as a client.  We have helped many young people and their families cope with a variety of problems and concerns.  To ensure the best treatment possible, our practice has a set of policies to ensure fair treatment when it comes to our minor clients.

 

Specifically, our policies are designed to comply with Pennsylvania's Act 147 of 2004 that outlines how minors consent to mental health treatment and control release of information in their treatment records.  We require that parents acknowledge these policies in writing before we accept a child or adolescent as a client.

In Pennsylvania, children under the age of 14 cannot consent for counseling or psychotherapy.  Children require their parents or legal guardians to consent to treatment for them.  As a standard of practice, The Mauriello Group requires that both parents or legal guardians give their written permission and consent to treat or evaluate their minor child.  Only in the rare exception when one parent can document that the other parent or guardian’s legal rights were terminated will we see a child without both parents’ permission.  This is to ensure that the whole family is in agreement with the need for counseling as well as taking an active role in the child’s treatment.  Additionally, although a child’s permission is not legally required, it only makes sense for us to continue to see a child who wants to stay in counseling.

In Pennsylvania, children over the age of 14 can consent for counseling or psychotherapy without the consent of their parents or legal guardians.  The law does not require that they have their parents’ or guardians’ permission to enter treatment.  Additionally, parents can consent for their adolescent (between the ages of 14 through 17) to enter treatment without needing the minor's consent.  As a standard of practice, however, we at The Mauriello Group will only treat or evaluate teens that consent to treatment as well as have permission from at least one of their parents or legal guardians to enter into counseling.  As stated above, this ensures that the whole family acknowledges the need for counseling and takes an active role in supporting treatment for their son or daughter.  In addition to a standard consent form for treatment, we ask all teens and their parents to sign a contract regarding guidelines for confidentiality.  Teens often have sensitive topics they need to discuss that they otherwise would not want to share with their parents.  Accordingly, they need to be offered a degree of privacy from their parents in counseling.  The form below explains this policy in greater detail.

Providers at The Mauriello Group do not specialize in child custody matters, and do not provide any services related to child custody matters.  These services include child custody evaluations, court-ordered counseling for custody matters, or counseling of minor clients whose parents have unresolved custody arrangements.  We also ask all parents to acknowledge that if custody issues emerge during the course of their child's treatment, then any statements, opinions, or testimony compelled from one of our providers would unavoidably cause irreparable damage to the therapeutic relationship between the provider and the minor client. 

Acknowledgement of Compliance with PA Act 147
The form explains Act 147 and how The Mauriello Group complies with the law to protect minor clients. We require parents to sign this form before accepting a minor as a client.
Mauriello Group - Act 147.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [79.1 KB]

Contact Us:

The Mauriello Group

139 West Market Street, Suite D

West Chester, PA 19382-2912

A National Certified Counselor (NCC) represents an individual's voluntary completion of and commitment to national standards determined by the counseling profession.  Several members of our team have achieved this level of certification.

Matthew Mauriello is certified to properly provide distance services to clients seeking telehealth.

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© Matthew J. Mauriello, MA, P.C.